In the Dutch records, Stuyvesant is the tyrannical and harsh,but also complex ruler who abhors unfairness. He is a devoted family man with a fondness for tropical birds and a wily strategist who keeps the New Englanders at bay. As an official of the West India Company, he believes that his wayward colony will only survive through martial law.

Pitted against him is his one-time protégé, Adriaen van der Donck, a lawyer steeped in the liberal traditions of the Dutch system, who is chosen President of the community. He leads a challenge to Stuyvesant's rule that results in the chartering of the city of New Amsterdam. New York City still regards this as the moment of it’s founding which would insure the lasting imprint on American history.

Compared to Stuyvesant, van der Donck emerges in the story almost as a forgotten founding father.  The passionate young man, who dreams a vision of Manhattan, and America, settled by a mix of peoples, one day growing in might, to surpass the old country.

He pushes his vision in every conceivable way. He writes about it in his book about the Colony, which became a bestseller in Europe and introduced Europeans to a place called Manhattan. He literally hires a ship to carry eager settlers to America. He creates what would become the principal map of the northeast for more than a century. He leads the movement for political reform, which results in his imprisonment, release, and journeying to The Hague to push the cause of the first Manhattanites.